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December 31, 2007

Baidu Loses CFO, Wins Piracy Case

Duncan Riley

21 comments »

Chinese search giant Baidu has lost its CFO under mysterious circumstances, but has won a major piracy case.

In a statement, Baidu said that CFO Shawn Wang had died in “an accident” whilst on holidays in China. No further details on the death were provided. Baidu shares dropped $9.07 following the news.

On a more positive note a Beijing appeals court ruled that Baidu was not guilty of copyright infringement for posting links to websites that offer illegal music downloads. Baidu offers music search on its front page and the service is often cited as being one of the core reasons behind its success in China over Google, who does not offer a similar music search facility. Yahoo China lost a similar case December 21.

(via AFP/ NY Times)

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 11:12 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. Fake Jerry Yang

    December 31st, 2007 at 11:32 pm

    Can not imagine what could have happen!

  2. Big balller

    December 31st, 2007 at 11:39 pm

    Baidu is a pretty cool search engine that did a good job of copying google’ model.

    There is an awesome new google-powered search engine that donates money everytime you search on it. Ive been using it for a month now and I love the fact that it helps and I love the clean design. CHECK IT OUT.

    HELPUU - http://www.helpuu.com

  3. * MISS UNIVERSE

    January 1st, 2008 at 12:01 am

    First post of the NEW YEARS :-D

    Happy 2008 - Let’s all meet here again on this very day in 2009!

  4. Bill Huang

    January 1st, 2008 at 1:00 am

    Very sad to hear the news of Shawn, met him once not long ago in Beijing, great guy…

    With the copyright lawsuit settled, now all major search engines are going to provide mp3/music search, including Google China and netease.
    Neverthless, some social music startups are getting more and more traffic from Chinese users these days, and I found this one especially interesting and addictive, looks like a combination of pandora and facebook; if you read Chinese, it’s here

    YOBO Music DNA - http://www.yobo.com

  5. LiquidSilver

    January 1st, 2008 at 1:16 am

    @Bill, I think there is another side of the story. From Yahoo’s previous loss to a similar court case and this win from Baidu, I get a sense that the Chinese government is favoring one side in the search engine arena. If Google starts copying Baidu’s idea, then Google may be getting the same treatment as Yahoo did. I don’t recall there is the ability to reference to the previous court cases in Chinese law system as we have here in USA.

  6. file2fone.com

    January 1st, 2008 at 1:44 am

    Sad to hear about Shawn.
    I hope this judgment will be road map for the search engine those struggling to provide music search/music download due to copyright issues.

  7. What's Hot Today.com

    January 1st, 2008 at 3:00 am

    May Shawn rest in peace.

    http://www.whathottoday.com

  8. plop

    January 1st, 2008 at 3:23 am

    “under mysterious circumstances”.

    ?????

  9. Techno Quest

    January 1st, 2008 at 3:47 am

    An alternative to Baidu…….

    http://technoq.blogspot.com/20.....earch.html

  10. ITrush

    January 1st, 2008 at 7:02 am

    I love music, but sorry can’t use Baidu cause I can’t read Chinese! Looks like google misses some of Baidu’s features!

    Nhick
    http://www.itrush.com

  11. Philippine Web

    January 1st, 2008 at 7:18 am

    The phrase “under mysterious circumstances” has raised a lot of questions in my mind. This is something that needs follow-up.

  12. Andrew

    January 1st, 2008 at 8:28 am

    he was murdered.

  13. Pro

    January 1st, 2008 at 9:58 am

    I think I get it.

    Baidu good, RIAA bad
    Google and Yahoo are missing out on the crucially important feature for customers, namely an easy way to steal music. The courts decide it’s OK to steal music in China and TechCrunch perceives that as a positive. (Probably more than enough to compensate for the stock price drop resulted by the CFO’s death.)
    So, Baidu is good, RIAA is bad, Google and Yahoo are lame losers.

    The most likely conclusion: RIAA killed the CFO

    @ITrush Do you love your music more when you steal it?
    @file2fone I feel your pain, the world would be a better place if every place was like China

    Happy and prosperous New Year, TechCrunch

  14. Eric

    January 1st, 2008 at 10:07 am

    Just goes to show what a messed up country China is. Baidu’s CFO was almost certainly assassinated or set up. He probably angered some government official by forgetting to pay his bribes. Yahoo China lost its copyright case, yet Baidu wins…I wonder why? Either someone paid a hefty bribe, or they’re just favoring Chinese companies.

    The country is completely messed up. I wouldn’t blink if we glassed the entire country tomorrow.

  15. mark

    January 1st, 2008 at 10:49 am

    I looked around, but couldn’t find any knowledgeable commentary on the Yahoo loss and how it differs from the Baidu win. Anyone have any more information on how the cases differ and whether comments like @Bill’s are accurate? Given the Chinese government penchant for favoring local companies, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were favoring Baidu.

  16. Matt

    January 1st, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    Yahoo! lost their case for linking to music download websites, but Baidu is found not guilty? Can someone explain what the difference was here?

  17. Cat Chen

    January 1st, 2008 at 7:40 pm

    Rumor says that, Shawn died while swimming in the sea near Sanya, Hainan province.

  18. Marshal SEO

    January 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 am

    very sorry to hear Shawn death.

  19. softones

    January 13th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

    Eric, particularly, who ever heard of a government favouring their own companies ???? this only happen in China ??? ha haaaa, take a look around you.. back-handers have been in exsistence since Moses…. If you keep talking about “stealing” music, perhaps you should have musicians stand on stage and do nothing, until fans shower them with enough cash ?? the trouble is, my friends, if you don’t want someone to sing the song you produced ( because they are “stealing” it…) then keep the mouth shut !! Baidu is quite legit to show you where to go for stuff, and as long as you are prepared to face the wrath of do-gooders, then you can’t blame Baidu unless they keep the stuff on their servers ?? You probably know many swear words, does that make you a bad-mouther, even though you don’t use them ??

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